US stocks tumble over record drop in retail sales

Washington, Nov 15 (DPA) US stocks dropped Friday, capping a dismal end to another volatile week, over concerns that a slump in retail sales revealed the extent of a looming recession.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 337.94 points, or 3.82 percent, as investors grappled with the bleak outlook for consumer spending.

Sears Holdings Corp, Home Depot Inc and Office Depot Inc fell more than 7.6 percent as government data revealed that retail sales dropped 2.8 percent in October, in the fourth consecutive drop and the biggest decline since such records began in 1992, according to the US Commerce Department.

“The retailers are just confirming what everybody already knows - the economy is in bad shape, people are not spending,” Malcolm Polley, president of Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg financial news agency. “We have too many retailers and some of them will go away.”